Carr Agrees to Testify Before Senate Panel on His Apparent Threats to Kimmel Show

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2025 — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has agreed to testify before a Senate panel following weeks of bipartisan criticism over his threats against ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, according to published reports.

Carr, a Republican appointee of President Trump, issued a vocal warning to ABC and its parent The Walt Disney Company on Sept. 17, saying the network could “do this the easy way or the hard way,” – in other words – rein in Kimmel’s commentary or face additional scrutiny from the FCC. Later that day, two of ABC’s largest affiliates, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Inc., announced they would preempt the show. Disney then moved to suspend Kimmel that night but brought him back after a four-show suspension.

Carr spoke out during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson after Kimmel on his Sept. 15 broadcast insinuated – some said lied – that Charlie Kirk’s assassin was a MAGA Trump supporter when evidence disclosed by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, R, prior to Kimmel’s comments pointed in the opposite direction.

Kimmel angered the right by saying, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA [Make America Great Again] gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it." 

Carr is expected to face sharp questioning from both sides of the aisle. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the most prominent Trump allies to criticize Carr’s actions, will likely lead the hearing.

“I think it is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying,’” Cruz said, speaking on his podcast on Sept. 19.

Cruz said Carr’s conduct was “dangerous as hell” and compared his comments to the threats of a mob boss. 

Other Republicans have chimed in to support Cruz since. They included: Sens. Rand Paul, Ky., Todd Young, Ind., Dave McCormick, Pa., Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Jerry Moran, Kan., and Rep. Brett Guthrie, Ky.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Wash., the Commerce committee’s ranking member, led her party on Sept. 19 in calling for Carr to appear before the panel.

“Carr threatened to use the regulatory power of the FCC against ABC, its parent company Disney, and its network affiliates if ABC did not fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel for his comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the senators wrote. “As the Committee with jurisdiction over the FCC, it is our constitutional duty to conduct oversight over this matter and demand Chairman Carr answer for this unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.”

In a letter to Cruz, Cantwell said Carr had improperly sought to influence licensing decisions at the president’s direction. 

President Donald Trump put his full support behind Carr. “I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sept. 18.

As part of his commentary, Carr said his point was partly to encourage TV station owners like Nexstar and Sinclair to push back against national networks if they think Kimmel’s comments, which many Kirk supporters found deeply offensive, do not serve the interests of their communities.

“Frankly, I think that it's really sort of past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, ‘Listen, we are going to preempt. We're not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we licensed broadcasters are running the possibility of fines or license revocation from the FCC if we continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion,’” Carr said. 

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., followed with his own call this week for Cruz to bring Carr before the Commerce committee.

In his statement, Markey detailed that politically motivated actions at the FCC had been taking place since February, when he, Sens. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., first wrote to Carr and then-Commissioner Nathan Simington warning against partisan interference in broadcast licensing.

House Democrats have also pressed for accountability. On Sept. 19, Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee urged the FCC’s inspector general to investigate Carr in connection with the Kimmel suspension. The move built on a broader inquiry that House Democrats opened in March into Carr’s repeated attacks on media outlets.

“Under Carr’s leadership, the FCC has harassed CBS for routine editing practices, reinstated lawfully denied complaints against ABC and NBC, launched a bogus investigation into KCBS-AM in San Jose simply for reporting publicly available information, and directed the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to launch investigations into NPR and PBS based on false allegations,” House E&C Democrats wrote.

The date of the hearing has not been set but was expected after November, according to a committee spokesperson.